Today the offering is a more contemporary movie (1999). Based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith, The Talented Mr. Ripley is in my book a mini masterpiece of suspense. Like a modern Hitchcock, this film is a pleasure to watch for the aesthetics as much as the acting and plot. Beautifully directed by Anthony Minghella, the movie was shot all across Italy – from Venice, Tuscany and Rome, to Naples and the islands of Ischia and Procida in the Gulf of Naples, and Palermo in Sicily. Director of photography John Seale, who won an academy award for his work with Minghella on The English Patient did a brilliant job of romanticizing the already fabulous scenery and the soundtrack by Gabriel Yared, who also won an Oscar for the English Patient, is intoxicating.…
